Share this with

French international Mathieu Debuchy, right, would be a shrewd buy for Arsenal (Picture: Getty Images)

So it looks as though the new right-back to replace Bacary Sagna will be Newcastle United’s Mathieu Debuchy. The Frenchman has been a consistent performer in the sea of mostly misery at the Magpies. He has more of an attacking mindset than Sagna and a little less of the defensive mindset, but he has plenty of quality about him.

He’ll come in for a good price, he has Premier League experience and he’ll easily be able to slot into the Arsenal way of playing.

He’s not the youngest right back in the league at 28 (29 end of July), which is interesting when you consider we had some tastier options available in Serge Aurier (21-year-old Ivory Coast international and Ligue One right-back of the year) and Seamus Coleman of Everton (25). So what do we make of that?

Advertisement

Advertisement

Well, my gut feel would say this means Arsenal see Hector Bellerin (19), the young Spaniard we nabbed from Barcelona, as the future long term right-back at Arsenal. If we bring in Debuchy and give him three years, he can slowly move over and we’ll have an extremely exciting prospect ready to take over.

So Debcuhy isn’t the best option, but he’s a solid option, for a reasnoble price who doesn’t damage the prospects of a genuinely exciting talent we have coming through the ranks.

What does this mean for Carl Jenkinson? Well, for me, it probably signals his time at Arsenal won’t stretch much further than this season. It’s sad because he’s a Gooner at heart, but this is top class sport. You can’t be sentimental. He hasn’t hit the heights and sadly he looks a long way off being best in class for his age.

So it’s cheerio Sagna, hello Debuchy. It’s not the greatest signing we’ve ever seen, but it’s a solid like for like for replacement.